Amnesty calls for retrial of Hezbollah case in Egypt

Amnesty International on Thursday called for a retrial of 26 defendants convicted in Cairo of working for Lebanon's Hezbollah to launch attacks in Egypt, criticising the use of an emergency court."These men should be retried by an ordinary court which gives them a chance of getting a fair trial," said the London-based rights watchdog."Bypassing justice by referring sensitive cases to emergency courts undermines the criminal justice system and encourages human rights abuses," Amnesty said.

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CAIRO • A court in Cairo has ordered the release on bail of Canadian journalist Mohammed Fahmy and his colleague Egyptian Baher Mohamed.
The decision was made about an hour after the start of a retrial for both men who have been in prison for more than a year on terror-related charges.
The Egyptian judge demanded that Fahmy pay a bail amount equivalent to about $41,000, pending the retrial now reportedly set to begin anew on Feb. 23.

After more than a year in prison, Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, 40, is to be retried on terror charges Thursday in Cairo, despite an Egyptian appeal court ruling he never should have been charged with terror crimes in the first place.
“He’s in shock after the news of a retrial,” said his fiancée, Marwa Omara.
“They will be in a glass cage so they will not be able to communicate to anyone,” she said of the courtroom. “It’s so humiliating.”

Just in case the borderline civil war in Egypt isn't enough to inflame hostilities in the middle east region sufficiently so the US finally gets involved, the US-funded, Al-Qaeda backed Syrian rebels decided to launch a second escalation offensive, this time near the very headquarters of the pro-Damascus Shiite group Hezbollah when a powerful car bomb killed at least 14 people and wounded about 200 others, national news agency NNA said.

Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court is to begin a retrial of Al-Jazeera journalists Thursday, including a Canadian awaiting deportation, after an appeals court said their initial trial failed to show Muslim Brotherhood links.

CAIRO — An Egyptian appeals court ordered a retrial Thursday in the case of three Al-Jazeera English journalists held for over a year, overturning the ruling in a case that ensnared the reporters in a wider conflict between Egypt and Qatar.
The decision by Egypt’s Court of Cassation came after a hearing that lasted less than half an hour. However, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy, Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohammed, who have been held since their arrest in December 2013, were not released on bail.

Deposed former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was sentenced to 20 years in prison today in connection with a crackdown on protesters during demonstrations against his rule in late 2012. Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood has been branded as a terrorist organization by now-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, assumed the Presidency in 2012 after Hosni Mubarak was toppled a year earlier during the Arab Spring.

Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned former president Hosni Mubarak's conviction on corruption charges and ordered a retrial, but the ex-strongman remained in detention pending a judicial order.

Amnesty International on Friday urged Egypt to stop the trial of a Facebook user threatened with five years in jail on charges of revealing military secrets and illegally speaking on behalf of the army."It appears that Ahmed Hassan Bassyouni is being tried solely for publishing information readily available in the public domain and often published in local newspapers," Amnesty said in a statement."If this is the case, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience," the London-based rights group added.